A very Merry Christmas to our family and friends in Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York, Massachusetts, California, North and South
Carolina, Georgia, Vancouver and London, and all of our new friends, bloggers and readers on Sailblogs. We wish you all the very best.

We spent a wonderful Christmas Eve with another of Pokey's sisters, Suzanne, and her husband Bob. Christmas Day will no doubt include numerous phone calls with the kids and grandkids, sisters, brother, cousins and friends. Somehow we will work in lunch at the Riverview with Sue and Bob and a walk down Flagler Avenue, the historic district of New Smyrna Beach. For all of you northies giving your snow shovel a short break for the holiday, we have to say, Christmas isn't quite the same without snow - it's fantastic.

The Admiral offers this to one and all:

Twas the night before Christmas
And all through the marina
We were grateful for not facing a hurricane Katrina
The stockings were hung on the lifelines with care
Hoping Santa and his jet ski would soon be there

We settled down to an evening below
Grateful we were not surrounded by snow
Blackie and Red snuggled in for the night
The water was calm, the stars were bright

All of a sudden the boat started to rock
Back and forth coming close to the dock
We flew from the cabin and got out on deck
We took Blackie and Red and thought, "What the heck?"

When what to our wondering eyes would appear
Christmas dolphins and Santa with fishing gear
The dolphins were laughing and jumping with glee
And Blackie and Red were looking for a tree

Santa was smiling and gave us a nod
He'd hooked lots of presents on his fishing rod
You've been very good sailors all this year
So I thought I'd stop by to wish you good cheer!

In a twinkling he finished and then he drove off
We thought to ourselves, "Who are we to scoff?"
He turned round as he left and said, "One moment please.
I wish you fair winds and following seas!"